Sofia Coppola Biography

Sofia Carmina Coppola ( ; born May 14, 1971) is an American screenwriter, director, producer and actress. In 2003, she received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation, and became the third woman (and first American woman) to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director. In 2010, with Somewhere, she became the first American woman (and fourth American filmmaker) to win the Golden Lion, the top prize at the Venice Film Festival.

Early life

Coppola was born in New York City, New York, the youngest child and only daughter of set decorator/artist Eleanor Coppola (née Neil) and director Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now). She is also granddaughter of the composer Carmine Coppola, sister of Roman Coppola and Gian-Carlo Coppola, niece of her father's siblings August Coppola and Talia Shire, and a cousin of Nicolas Cage, Jason Schwartzman, and Robert Carmine.

When Coppola was fourteen-years-old, her brother Gian-Carlo was killed in a boating accident. She attended high school at St. Helena High School and graduated with the class of 1989. She later went to Mills College and the California Institute of the Arts, and interned with Chanel when she was fifteen-years-old. After dropping out of college, Coppola started a clothing line called Milkfed that is now sold exclusively in Japan.

Career

Early career

Coppola's acting career, marked by frequent criticisms related to nepotism, began while she was an infant, as she made background appearances in seven of her father's films. The best known of these early roles is her appearance in The Godfather as the baby boy in the baptism scene. Coppola returned to her father's trilogy in both the second and third Godfather films, playing Michael Corleone's daughter in the latter after the original actress Winona Ryder discontinued her involvement with the film. Coppola responded to a question about her role in The Godfather Part III in a 2013 interview:

Let's see. Did I not wanna do it? Um. I was game. I was trying different things. It sounded better than college. I didn't really think about the public aspect of it. That took me by surprise. The whole reaction. People felt very attached to the Godfather films. I grew up with them being no big deal. I mean, I understand they're great films but ? I dunno. I'm not surprised. It makes sense that people would have an opinion about it but I got a lot of attention I wasn't expecting. I was going to art school anyway so I was able to get back to what I was doing. It was before the internet so magazines would come out but then the next month they were gone. There wasn't even as much paparazzi around then.

Coppola also acted in her father's films The Outsiders (1983), in a scene where Matt Dillon, Tommy Howell, and Ralph Macchio are eating at a Dairy Queen, Rumble Fish (1983), The Cotton Club (1984), and as Kathleen Turner's sister Nancy Kelcher in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986).

Frankenweenie (1984) was the first film that she performed in that was not associated with her father; however, it often goes unnoted due to her stage name "Domino", which she adopted at the time because she thought it was glamorous. The 1989 short film, entitled Life Without Zoe, was released as part of a tripartite anthology film New York Stories, and was co-written by a teenage Coppola with her father, who also directed the film.

After she was critically panned for her performance in The Godfather Part III, for which she was named "Worst Supporting Actress" and "Worst New Star" at the 1990 Golden Raspberry Awards, Coppola ended her acting career; although, she appeared in the 1992 independent film Inside Monkey Zetterland, as well as in the backgrounds of films by her friends and family; for example, she appeared as Saché in George Lucas' Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 1999. She has since been quoted as saying that she was not hurt by the criticism from her role in The Godfather Part III, because she never especially wanted an acting career.

Coppola also appears in several music videos from the 1990s: The Black Crowes' "Sometimes Salvation"; Madonna's "Deeper and Deeper"; the Chemical Brothers' "Elektrobank", which was directed by her future husband Spike Jonze; and Phoenix's Funky Squaredance.

Filmmaking

Coppola's first short-film was Lick the Star (1998). It played many times on the Independent Film Channel. She made her feature-film directing debut with The Virgin Suicides (1999). It premiered in North America at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival and was released later that year.

Her second feature was Lost in Translation (2003). Coppola won the Academy Award for her original screenplay and three Golden Globe Awards including Best Picture. After Lina Wertmüller and Jane Campion, Coppola became the third female director to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing. Her win for best original screenplay in 2003 made her a third-generation Oscar winner. In 2004, Coppola was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Her third film was the biopic Marie Antoinette, adapted from the biography by British historian Antonia Fraser. Kirsten Dunst plays the title character, who marries King Louis XVI, played by Jason Schwartzman, Coppola's cousin. It debuted at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival where, despite boos in the audience, it received a standing ovation. Critics were divided.

Her fourth film was Somewhere (2010). The movie was filmed at Chateau Marmont. The plot focuses on a "bad boy" actor portrayed by Stephen Dorff who is forced to reevaluate his life when his daughter, played by Elle Fanning, arrives unexpectedly. In November 2010, Coppola was interviewed by Joel Coen, who professed his admiration of Coppola's work, at the DGA screening of Somewhere in New York City.

Coppola's next film is The Bling Ring. It is based on actual events centered around the Bling Ring, a group of California teenagers who burgled the homes of several celebrities over 2008 and 2009, stealing around $3 million in cash and belongings. Emma Watson, Taissa Farmiga, Leslie Mann, Katie Chang and Israel Broussard are starring in the film. The film opened the Un Certain Regard section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

Television

In the mid-1990s, she and best friend Zoe Cassavetes helmed the short-lived series Hi Octane on Comedy Central which spotlit performers in underground music. The show was cancelled after four episodes.

In December 2008, Coppola's first commercial premiered during an episode of Gossip Girl. The advertisement which she directed for the Christian Dior fragrance Miss Dior Chérie which was shot in France with model Maryna Linchuk was very well received and continues to be popular on YouTube.

Modeling

At the beginning of the 1990s, she was often featured in girl-oriented magazines like Seventeen and YM. In 1998, she cofounded the clothing line Milk Fed in Japan with friend Stephanie Hayman in cooperation with Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon.

In 2002, fashion designer Marc Jacobs hand-picked the actress/director to be the face of his house's fragrance. The campaign involved photographs of her shot by photographer Juergen Teller in his signature grainy style.

In the July 2013 issue of Elle Magazine, photographs shot by Coppola of Paris Hilton at her Beverly Hills mansion (which makes a cameo in The Bling Ring) were featured.

Awards

Coppola was nominated for three Academy Awards for her 2003 film Lost in Translation, in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay. She would go on to win for Best Original Screenplay, but lost the other two nominations to Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Her nomination for Best Director made her the first American woman in history to be nominated in that category, and the third overall, after Lina Wertmüller and Jane Campion. In 2010, Kathryn Bigelow became the fourth woman to be nominated, and the first to win the award. Coppola, however, remains the youngest woman to be nominated in the Best Director category.

Her win for Best Original Screenplay resulted in her family becoming the second three-generation Oscar winning family, her grandfather Carmine Coppola and her father Francis Ford Coppola having previously won Oscars. The first family to achieve this feat was the Huston family: Walter, John, and Anjelica.

For her work on Lost in Translation, Coppola also won a Best Screenplay Golden Globe and received a BAFTA nomination.

On September 11, 2010, Somewhere won the Golden Lion, the top prize at the 67th Venice Film Festival.

Personal life

In 1999 Coppola married director Spike Jonze, whom she had first met in 1992, and they divorced in 2003. It is widely believed that a minor character in Lost In Translation is based on Jonze, as Coppola stated after the film's release, "There are elements of Spike there, elements of experiences." In an official statement, Coppola's publicist explained that the divorce decision was reached "with sadness."

Coppola lives in Paris, France with her second husband Thomas Mars (lead singer of the French band Phoenix), and has described her love for the city and her favorite places there: "The Palais-Royal, the Tuileries Garden, the Musée d'Orsay. You can tell I love the city, right? It's a filmmaker's dream there; the colors are beautiful!" On November 28, 2006, Coppola gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Romy, who is named in honor of her brother Roman.

Coppola first met Mars while producing the soundtrack to The Virgin Suicides. They have since collaborated on Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, and Somewhere.

A second daughter named Cosima was born to Coppola and Mars in New York City, U.S. in May 2010. Coppola and Mars were married on August 27, 2011 at her family's villa ex "Palazzo Margherita" in Bernalda, Italy.

Filmography

Director

Films

• The Virgin Suicides (1999)
• Lost in Translation (2003)
• Marie Antoinette (2006)
• Somewhere (2010)
• The Bling Ring (2013)

Short-films

• Lick the Star (1998)

Music videos

• "This Here Giraffe" by The Flaming Lips (1996)
• "Playground Love" by Air (2000)
• "City Girl" by Kevin Shields (2003)
• "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" by The White Stripes (2003)

Advertisement

• Miss Dior Chérie fragrance for Christian Dior starring Maryna Linchuk (2008)
• City of Light fragrance for Christian Dior starring Natalie Portman (2012)
• Marni collection for H&M starring Imogen Poots (2012)
• La vie en rose for Christian Dior fragrance Miss Dior starring Natalie Portman (2013)

Actress

Films

Year	Film	Role	Director	Notes
1972	The Godfather	Baby at Baptism	Francis Ford Coppola	(uncredited)
1974	The Godfather Part II	Child on ship	Francis Ford Coppola	(uncredited)
1983	The Outsiders	Little Girl	Francis Ford Coppola	Credited as 'Domino'
	Rumble Fish	Donna	Francis Ford Coppola	Credited as 'Domino'
1984	Frankenweenie	Anne Chambers	Tim Burton	Credited as 'Domino'
	The Cotton Club	Child in Street	Francis Ford Coppola	Credited as 'Domino'
1986	Peggy Sue Got Married	Nancy Kelcher	Francis Ford Coppola
1986	Faerie Tale Theatre: The Princess Who Had Never Laughed	Gwendolyn	Mark Cullingham	Credited as 'Domino'
1987	Anna	Noodle	Yurek Bogayevicz
1988	Tucker: The Man and His Dream	(uncredited)	Francis Ford Coppola
1990	The Godfather Part III	Mary Corleone	Francis Ford Coppola	Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress
1992	Inside Monkey Zetterland	Cindy	Jefery Levy
1999	Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace	Saché	George Lucas	Nominated - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress
2001	CQ	Enzo's Mistress	Roman Coppola

Music videos

• "Mildred Pierce" by Sonic Youth (1990) - directed by Dave Markey
• "Deeper and Deeper" by Madonna (1992) - directed by Bobby Woods
• "Sometimes Salvation" by The Black Crowes (1992) - directed by Stéphane Sednaoui
• "Elektrobank" by The Chemical Brothers (1997) - directed by Spike Jonze
• "Funky Squaredance" by Phoenix (2002) - directed by Roman Coppola

See also

• Coppola family tree